Sistani says Iraq constitution a 'dead end'

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has intensified his opposition to the country's interim constitution. Mr. Sistani sent a letter to the UN envoy in Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, saying that flaws in the constitution "will lead to a dead end and bring the country into an unstable situation and perhaps lead to its partition and division."

In the letter, Sistani said he will not participate in meetings with UN officials if the Security Council endorses the US-backed interim constitution, MSNBC reports. The Shiite leader also said he would boycott the UN mission "unless the United Nations takes a clear stance that the constitution does not bind the National Assembly and is not mentioned in any new Security Council resolution concerning Iraq."

Among Sistani's main concerns is the consitution's heavy emphasis on ethnic and religious differences. "This constitution that gives the presidency in Iraq to a three-member council, a Kurd, a Sunni Arab and a Shiite Arab, enshrines sectarianism and ethnicity in the future political system in the country," his letter said.

Currently, the constitution, which was signed by the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council on March 8, is to remain in effect until a permanent constitution replaces it in late 2005.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0323/dailyUpdate.html?s=entt

It's horrible to be pushing sectarianism and racism in Iraq. It should either be a single unitary state in which all citizens are equal, or a federation of republics. I think the former is more appropriate unless an international agreement regarding Kurdestan can be created.

pretext of staging a permanent US presence there.

This is all skillfully manipulated.

It's this simple: The administration does not want a united, secular Iraq. The neo-cons want division - the parts will be easier to control than the whole - and if civil war is needed to get there, so be it.